There are several plugins you will need on every website. The nice thing about Genesis plugins is that they can be installed directly from the WordPress repositories. If you have ever installed a WordPress plugin then you can install these plugins!

Genesis Featured Page Advanced – An advanced version of the Genesis – Featured Page widget. Allows you to add a custom image, custom content, page excerpt, and more.

Genesis Responsive Slider – This plugin allows you to create a simple responsive slider that displays the featured image, along with the title and excerpt from each post.

Genesis Simple Edits – This plugin lets you edit the three most commonly modified areas in any Genesis theme: the post-info (byline), the post-meta, and the footer area.

Genesis Simple Hooks – This plugin creates a new Genesis settings page that allows you to insert code (HTML, Shortcodes, and PHP), and attach it to any of the 50+ action hooks throughout the Genesis Theme Framework, from StudioPress.

Please remember since Genesis is paid for framework you can’t install it until you purchase it from StudioPress. When you buy Genesis Framework you are actually buying “two themes”. You are getting:

Genesis

Genesis-sample

NOTE – If you buy any of their other starter themes you will get that other Child theme as well as “Genesis” & “Genesis-Sample”.

Before Uploading Genesis to your site please remember you will need to upload at least two items. You will need to upload:

Genesis Framework Theme

Genesis Child Theme

You can’t touch the Genesis folder in any way. This un-activated theme folder is required for ALL Genesis child themes. You can have one or more child themes on your server however only one can be active at a time. NEVER try to activate the Base Genesis theme!

There are two main ways of installing Genesis.

Log into your WordPress site and use the theme upload wizard

Manually unzipping and getting the theme files into the “\wp-content\themes” folder.

I will cover both ways.

WordPress Theme Upload Wizard

The first thing you will need to do is to log into your website. Click on Appearance – Themes

Click “Add New”

Click “Upload Theme”.

Click on “Choose File” and select the core genesis Framework file. In my case it is “genesis.2.2.7.zip”. Click open. Notice that “No File is chosen” and the “install now” button is greyed out.

The open screen will close. You can now see that you have chosen a file and the “Install Now” is now clickable. Please click “Install Now”.

You will see that “Genesis” is now installed.

This next step is constantly missed by people new to Genesis. It is important to stress once again:

Do NOT activate the Genesis framework you just installed.

You still need to upload a child theme and activate it.

To install the Genesis child theme you must follow the same steps you just followed BUT this time, you are going to select “genesis-sample”. You will activate this theme!

How to Manually install Genesis and a Genesis theme

NOTE- If you have already uploaded the themes through WordPress you don’t have to do this. This is just an alternative way of installing the framework and child theme.

The second way of installing Genesis is by copying the contents of the zip files and putting them into the “\wp-content\themes” folder. On my local install it can be found at: C:\xampp\htdocs\genesis\wp-content\themes

After you copy the file to the folder it will look like:

Now that you have copied the files go log into WordPress and go to the themes section.

You will have at least 3 themes that you can choose from.

You need to click on the “Activate” button on the “Genesis Sample” theme.

That is all! Next post I will talk about the Genesis plugins that I install on almost EVERY site I work on! Stay tuned!

Introduction to the Genesis Framework

Genesis is a premium paid-for framework. Once you have paid for it you can make child themes that run on top of Genesis.

I am going to assume you have at least 6 month worth of experience with WordPress and know about the basic things like adding themes and plugins. You should have a general idea what the structure of a WordPress site should look like.

If you haven’t done it yet you should probably setup your own local copy of WordPress using my 5-minute install post.

Let’s jump in with a few basic questions before moving on to the nitty-gritty…

PLEASE NOTE: If your site is hosted on WordPress.com (example: mysite.wordpress.com), you can NOT install the Genesis Framework or new themes. This is a restriction on WordPress.comhosted sites

What’s a Framework?

A theme framework is a robust WordPress theme that acts as a platform on which your WordPress website can be created.

The Genesis Framework integrates all of the SEO, security, and performance features needed to help you have the best site possible.

You can build your site on the Genesis Framework using the included Sample child theme (it’s easy, flexible, and powerful enough for that), or you can purchase one of our many beautiful turnkey child theme designs to help you accomplish exactly what you want.

What’s a Child Theme?

A child theme is a layer of code that sits on top of the Genesis Framework and is comprised mainly of the design elements of your site, but can also extend and modify the functionality of the Genesis Framework’s default functions.

The Framework + Child Theme structure of site building is great because it separates the performance issues of your site from the design issues. So, if you use a child theme, you can design all day long without ever touching the critical, underlying code that makes Genesis sites so powerful.

Analogies are sometimes helpful. Think of your website like a car:

WordPress – acts as the engine of your car.

Genesis (the framework) – is the frame and body of the car, and is the basic design, security, and SEO foundation of your website. In handling all the core code, Genesis also helps to “future-proof” your site, so all your customizations won’t disappear when it comes time for your one-click software upgrades.

Child theme – is the pure design element that rests on top of your framework — the cherry red paint job on that car. Or blue. Or black. Pink. Green. You get the idea, whatever works for you …

Theme Files

A Genesis child theme will generally be comprised, in part, of the following elements:

Screenshot: An image of the design that the theme will create around your content.

Style sheet (style.css) (required): The CSS code that determines the look of the site based on the HTML generated by Genesis and WordPress.

Functions file (functions.php) (required): Connects the child theme to the framework. Can also be used to add, remove, and modify elements from the framework defaults.

Front Page file (front-page.php) (optional): Generally used to create a widgetized or custom
home page.

Other template files (optional)

Images (optional): Used by the Style sheet as a part of the site design

These elements are grouped together in what’s known as a child theme directory (or folder) and can be activated like any other WordPress theme.